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You can still download the Ultima IV legally [thatfleminggent.com]. Or, at least, according to both that page and the first article linked to from the summary. And, from that page there is a link to a Usenet post with the permission:

>I've been the recipient of a forward from Edward Franks (Fortran)>regarding the distribution of Ultima IV and I'm mighty confused..

sorry for the confusion... let's see if I can clarify

1. the U4 distribution in the magazine was intended to be an 'exclusive'for the mag.2. Once the mag distribution was over, it was felt nothing much could bedone to stop redistribution of U4 after that3. KickAss was offering U4 for d/l, but the Dragons couldn't (per aprevious 'restriction' by Origin?)4. I said, that's not fair to the Dragons... They've been honest aboutthis. Why not let them offer it as well.. Answer: Your absolutely right..5. Ergo: email to Fortran Dragon 'OK'ing' the ability to offer U4 for freed/l by Dragons

So, I just went and downloaded the game. Go me!

As far as I can tell, EA is only going after those who didn't have permission in the first place. Which, is perfectly legal, and not even that dickish when considered from that perspective. (From another perspective, that copyright is shit, and/or that copyright for a 26 year old game is shit, it is dickish. Whatever.)

But yeah, to bad nobody reads the article around here hey. Too bad the summary didn't mention this little point about the game still being available from some places.

I seem to recall if you were stupid enough to attack a villager in a town, you'd not see that once, but about six times over. (I don't recall which few virtues you didn't lose)

But EA probably is within their rights to do this. It does no good to get upset at them because they're playing by the rules. As we all know, it's the rules that are broken.

BUT, the reason the rules are broken are because companies (like EA) have brib...er lobbied congress critters to write those laws. But again, that's still them playing within the rules, and again leads back to the rules being broken. It's a problem that's two levels deep, and in both cases comes down to a defective legislative system. Defective, not malfunctioning. It's working as designed, it's just designed wrong. Unfortunately certain aspects of its design (such as lobbying) make it a problem that's self-perpetuating to a large degree.